Pathline (12 page)

She took off her boots and grabbed her bag to change into her nightgown.  "I'll tell you a bedtime
story;
you can sleep on it then decide if you need to know more, how's that?" 

He
chuckled
.
"
D
o I have a choice?" 

Rune
grinned
back at him. 

Once they'd both changed and settled in the bed, Rune took a deep breath gathering her thoug
hts.  She turned to face Marcus.

"Ok
ay
.  Appreciation D
ay has only existed for fifteen years, but supers have been around longer than that, and most people resented them back then.  My father was one of those people.  He didn't care about the high-level supers, they were being recruited to the government and military
and had nothing to do with him;
but he was a laborer and many of the top labor positions started going to mid and low level supers, mainly
D
efenders
and
R
unners
.  
He considered them freaks, and thought it was unfair that they should take away jobs from hard working people like him. 
He would drink a lot, and go
on rants about how the 'freaks'
were ruining the nation. 

Then the government revealed the existence of
W
anderers.  You remember the outcry it first caused, I'm sure, well my father was beside himself about it.  If the other supers were
freaks
, then
W
anderers were
demons
. 
He considered them a danger to humanity, thought they shoul
d be killed off
before they could breed and
spread their ungodliness
;
had most of the
neighborhood on his side too.

I began to develop my ability early on, but I did
my
best to suppress and hide it as long as possible.  When I finally acknowledged that
it
wasn't going to go away I decided that
I
should.  I ran away from home when I was still young, barely entering adolescence. 
I moved from place to place, getting by however I could, until I came across news that there was a
town
that was willing to hide supers. 
I made my way there, and the first people I met
were
a group of kids that were living in an abandoned building.  They were all runaways.  One of them was Rook. 
Rook took me under his wing, kept me
safe
.  He'd learned to harness his ability
early
, and quickly learned how to make use of it. 

We were inseparable back then, breaking off from the rest of the group.  Rook always found us a safe place to stay, and always made sure we had food.  He soon started to take menial jobs to make money for us, and encouraged me to fully develop my ability.  He's the reason 'Rune' exists, he brought that side out in me.
We lived like that for a while.
A
s we got older we both started taking super jobs along with our civilian work to make ends
meet
.  Rook thrived in that world, but it started to
wear
on me. 
Society
had begun to warm up to t
he existence of supers, if not W
anderers, an
d they were being put to work
help
ing
with natural disasters and
other
emergencies.  They were doing good
, saving lives
.  I wanted to do good.  The work we did seemed pretty trivial compared to that
.  Rook wouldn't hear of it, he distrusted anything to do with the government, felt they would turn against us at any moment. 

One day
when
I was
on
a job,
mediocre
work
in a major city
, I caught a news report being broadcast in a nearby store.  The government was calling out for supers to come try out for their programs, and they were offering a hefty starting bonus for any
W
anderer who made it in.  They had very few
W
anderers then, and wanted them for 'special' assignments aiding the country. 
It sounded like exactly the type of work I wanted to be doing.  I knew how Rook would feel, but I couldn't help brining up the report
to him when I got home
that night
.  He got angry,
considered
it
a ploy to round up
W
anderers, thought any that took up the offer were idiots
.  I didn't bring it up again, but I met with a government recruiter soon after.  I passed the test, qualified as a high-level recruit, and got offered a position with the agency.  I didn't tell him.  We got into a fight
the
night
I
received
the offer
and I just left.
I hadn't seen him since then.

I wasn't lying to you before Marcus, there was never anything romantic between Rook and me, but I did love him.  For all those years he was the closest thing I had to family, and he will always have a place in my heart. 
He's here now because of me, because he's always hel
ped me when I've asked him to. 
And t
hat's my story." 

She took a deep breath then leaned back into the bed.  Marcus had watched her carefully throughout.  He leaned
in
clos
e
and kissed her lightly.

"I get it.  And he probably doesn't like me because he's so protective of you and he doesn't think I'm good enough
.
" 

Rune was ab
out to speak but he stopped her.

"
I
t's
okay;
I would be the same way in his position.  Although I do think he's a bit of an idiot for letting you walk away, but hey, I wouldn't have gotten you otherwise." 

Rune gave him a sad smile.
  "I'm sorry about the outburst yesterday, I didn't mean for it to be like that, but I just don't fit here anymore Marcus." 

He looked into her eyes.
"
Y
ou've been pulling away from the agency for a few weeks
now;
I've felt it but didn't want to say anything.  You did catch me off guard with the abruptness though." 

She gave a small laugh.
"
N
ot really my style huh?" 

He shook his head smiling.
"
N
o, not really.  I was thinking, you know that the
Appreciation D
ay award comes with a nice monetary reward, well how about we use that to buy a house?  Somewhere out in the country
?" 

S
he sat up again, looking at him.
"
A
house in the county
?" 

He laughed at her reaction
.
"
Y
es. 
W
hen this assignment is over you can use your new free time to pick something out." 

She looked at him skeptically
.
"
Y
ou
aren't quitting, how could we live in the country?  You need to live close enough to answer agency calls." 

Marcus pulled her to him.
"
T
hen we can live outside of the city in a private estate, driving distance from the agency.  Besides, I've already won the
A
ppreciation
A
ward, you can only win that once.  Several
D
efenders have retired after winning the award, go on to live lives of endorsement deals and consulting.  I'm sure Serk would love to have me out of the way so that he can take the spotlight." 

Rune shook h
er head at him.
"
B
eing linked to me would put a damper on your endorsement deals, and anyway you love your work here, you can't retire yet." 

He chucked into her hair
.
"
M
aybe not
yet
, but we'll see what happens over the next year." 

She shook her head in amazement again, resting her
head
on his chest listening to his heartbeat.  "
Private estate
, you're insane." 

He laughed
again;
she coul
d hear the echoing in his chest.
"
J
ust thought I'd throw it out there, you can pick whatever you'd like, although you should see some of the houses retired award
D
efenders live in." 

Rune s
norted.
"
W
ell the only retired D
efender I personally know lives in a small apartment above a seedy bar
.
"
She laughed.
"I think he'd like you
.
" 

The next morning after they had gotten ready Rune went over to Rook's room and knocked.  He opened the door and let her in.  She noticed that he'd charged all the electronics in the room so that nothing was working. 

"Paranoid much?" she said
,
as she walked in. 

He raised his eyebrows at her
.
"I'll restart them once I've gon
e, there's no permanent damage;
I know what I'm doing." 

She chuckled and shook her head
.
"
Y
es, you do.  About that, how are you planning on handling today's traini
ng session?" 

He gave her a crooked
smile.
"I'm just as i
nterested in seeing what these
top level
supers have in them as they probably are about me.  I'll let them lead, see where they take me."  He winked at her
.

Rune eyed him hesitantly.  "Did you get a sat-com last night?  And if so, is it active?" 

He laughed
.
"
Y
es I got one, kept it on, in the bathroom." 

She laughed
.
"
O
kay, I'm not going to
address that.
W
e should be heading
out;
Malik is meeting us in the elevator lobby
.
"  
While they were in the elevator Rune turned to look at him
. 
"
L
ast night I told Malik how we met
.
" 

Rook faced her, eyebrows raised.
"
W
ow.  This relationship really must be serious" he said. 

"It is" she replied
,
as the doors opened and they stepped out. 

Malik and Suri were waiting in the lobby area, both with two cups of coffee in hands. 
Rune smiled at Suri when she saw her, and broke stride with Rook.  Malik handed her a cup of coffee and they both turned and faced Suri who was offering her 'spare' cup to Rook. 
Rook seemed taken aback by the kindness, he accepted it and seemed to soften up to Suri a bit. 
The four of them made their way to
the training rooms.  Along the
way they caught up with Helo and Ash who both
greeted
Rook
pleasantly. 
When they arrived at the main training room
they found
Serk and Catha were already there
, in the midst of a conversation
. 
Both turned to look at the group entering, but didn't address anyone. 
After a few minutes they were followed by Blythe, then Nave and Felix, and finally Delph. 
At the appearance of the final team member the group started separating by tactical team
,
heading towards either Serk or Malik. 

Serk gestured towards the door leading to the next training room for his team to follow, but Malik stopped him. 

"I was actually thinking that we should work together today, sinc
e it's Rooks' first day with us
and he's the only charger we've got
.
" 

Serk seemed reluctant, but after a moment he agreed and stepped back towards the center of the room next to Malik. 

Serk walked up to one of the electromagnetic generators and turned it on.  "We've been working with these for the past two days, they send out streams of energy at random and we've been devising ways to avoid or attempts to deflect the streams.  I think we've done very well on our own
” he
said, mainly addressing Rook.